I'm interested in knowing if anyone knows somebody who has participated in the Teach and Study Program at Tel Aviv University. This is a two year graduate program to recieve an MA in TESOL.

Just curious to see if anyone has any opinions of the program. It looks very interesting and I am seriously considering applying. I currently live and work in Tokyo. I am enjoying my work at a private language company and think that advancing my level of education is the next step.

An interesting program and maybe useful in the West or Asia but makes more sense if you are considering aliyah. Since some Arab countries won't even allow you in if you have an Israel stamp on your passport, I doubt that an M.A. from TAU will impress your average Kuwaiti/Saudi employer.

EDIT: I tried getting some info about the program, admissions, etc. but having a civilized exchange with your average Israeli is mission impossible. They do have a website though at http://www.tasp.org.il but good luck getting beyond the basics.

I applied for the program when it was still associated with a university in England about 2 years ago. I had various back and forths with (MOD EDIT) who was then in charge of the program. He still is but there are more people involved now. I didn't care for him but he did give me plenty of info. The program currently costs $8500. not including living expenses which is expensive for me. Its an interesting program because you are teaching in Tel Aviv public schools (Arab/Israeli/Christian/Druze) while doing the MA. Plus Tel Aviv university is a "real" university and well-respected. I would do it if I could afford it.

If I had seen this inquiry sooner, I would have responded right away. I was in the Teach and Study Program in Tel Aviv and it was awful! No one in my year or the previous year finished the program. Some stayed in it for the full two years but never finished their thesis for various reasons such as having to pay an extra year's tuition after being told they could have as much time as they needed to finish the thesis without paying extra.

The supervisors of this program feel free to tell you to your face that you made up what you wanted the program to be when you bring up the fact that TASP was advertised as offering a student visa after arrival, Two weeks of intensive Hebrew before everything esle started, EFL/ESL teacher certification, subsidized apartments that fit within the stipend budget, and worthwhile teaching experience and university courses. We got none of those things. (Without the visa, we were all there illegally.)

Tel Aviv University didn't even recognize the program while I was there, though I hear that they do now. I've also heard that everything that was bad when I was there has gotten worse.

There is no teaching involved in this program. There is however a lot of babysitting and being bad mouthed, whether you're placed in an elementary school or a high school, and that's only if your "students" bother to show up.

God forbid you actually try to do a lesson or activity with these kids. The parents will all call to complain that you made their precious brat work or read or learn something. Classroom management is considered a crime. Don't take any of Harry Wong's wonderful advice with you to Tel Aviv. It will get you in trouble.

The University courses didn't begin until the end of October, yet we had to arrive in mid-August. Then the university courses were completely redundant, had nothing to do with teaching or being trained to teach English as a foreign language, and consisted of the professors reading their useless research to us.

The living stipend will barely pay your rent and utilities, and Zvi Dank will tell you that there are tutoring jobs available for good money, but none of us in my year were able to get our hands on one no matter how many ads we put up.

I know of one good thing that came out of this program. Someone that was wise enough to drop-out during my first year wrote a novel in which one of the main characters spends a year in the Teach And Study Program in Tel Aviv. It is fiction and it's a comedy, but she made sure to include her horrible her TASP experience. The novel was recently published and is called
Instigating Profligacy: Aviva and Aisha's Adventures in the World by E.G. Barbuto. Check it out.

I hope you didn't already apply to TASP. Also, the tuition TASP demands (It was $7,500/year when I was there.) is waaaaaaaaay more than Tel Aviv University's tuition for foreign students. There's a lot more I could tell you, but thinking about TASP makes me ill.

Sincerely,

Former TASPer (And not proud of the fact that I was scammed into that program.)

PS - An MA in TESOL is not even on the menu for TASP. That's what I thought it was until I arrived in Tel Aviv. And up until the day I quit they still wouldn't officially say what the supposed MA would be in. The courses certainly had NOTHING to do with TESOL or teaching.

Also, along with my letter of acceptance to TASP, I received a demand for $2,000 due in a matter of a few short weeks in order to secure my place in the program. I still wish I had not paid that.

I did the TASP program a few years ago. I found the University part to be good. I was happy with my studies, advisors and professors there. However, the masters is research oriented--not teaching oriented. We do not end up with a teaching certificate, which is a problem in any country. The prorgram will be marketed as if you are learning how to be a teacher, when in reality the University studies are very research oriented. Good for people who want to write textbooks, go to a PHD and work in government bodies. There are a lot of other English speaking teaching programs that are geared towards people who are teachers and want to teach. However, I did really like the University and learned a lot. Some stuff was helpful to my teaching, but we don't learn a lot about classroom procedures and management.

I was not that happy with the "internship". It was pretty disorganized, and did not do much to prepare me to be a teacher. Everyone has a very different experience with their internship, but many are tutoring small groups of students, and were also unhappy. In many cases your left to your own devices to find lesson plans and things. There is no set curriculum or supplies provided to TASP interns (though sometimes interns work out of the Israeli text books). The guidance through the internship was not the greatest either, and I spent a lot of my own money on supplies.

I could have done a regular program, but went to TASP because I wanted a structured group program. However, I found TASP to be very unstructured and individual. There are not a lot of group activities, policies are very loose and you are sort of doing your own thing in Tel Aviv.

That said, I was still very happy with the University part, and don't regret doing TASP for that reason.

Yeah, they do! All my friends in the states got their certificate in conjunction with an MA program. In Israel it is the same thing--you can choose to do your certificate at a private teacher's college or a University. We were all under the impression that we would come out of the program with a certificate and MA. (Maybe it is teaching certificate in passing). At least we thought that the MA would be of use in getting a teaching certificate or teaching. It is marketed completely as a teaching program. That is not the case--so just be careful. Like I said TASP program policy is very loose. A husband and wife are the directors and the board is all their friends so things aren't as set in stone as one would expect, and have a way of changing mid stream.